found hy the French in Upper Egypt, 373 



'the /corner's chair, thowing out their fophifm«i and their far- 

 cafms againft the account given by Mofes. Thefe arms 

 made their ufual imprellion on inattentive men. They re- 

 ject .as fabulous the chronology of the facred hiftorian ; 

 and, by a very remarkable but not novel inconfiftency, they 



five more faith to the uncertain interpretations of thefe com- 

 ined arrangements of the Egyptian figns and hieroglyphics,, 

 the date of which as well as me meaning is unknown, than 

 to a chronology eftabliihed on an uninterrupted feries of ge- 

 nerations. 



Fortunately, without going far from the place where thefe 

 zodiacs were found, a very remarkable fa& of the philofophy 

 of the earth bears teftimony againft the antiquity afcribed to 

 tiiem. 



We know, from the accounts of enlightened travellers, 

 that the coaft of Arabia on the Red Sea is incumbered with 

 banks or reefs of coral, which render accefs to them difficult 

 and dangerous. 



Thefe reefs are the work and habitation of polypes, which 

 in proportion as they labour abandon their firft habitations, 

 on which they continue to build. This fucceffion of labour 

 is feen very diftinclly in thofe marine productions which ferve 

 to ornament our cabinets of natural hiftory under the names 

 of coral, madrepores, millepores, Tea organs, &c. 



In warm climates thefe polypes are always in activity; 

 they never ceafe to multiply and to labour; the refult of 

 which is, that in a fhort time they augment in a lenfible 

 manner the mafsof their habitations, which are not deftroyed 

 by age, as they are of the fame fubftance as (hells, and have 

 the fame hardnefs. 



Niebuhr, in his Defcription of Arabia, p. 199, mentions, 

 a ftriking inftance of the rapid increafe of thefe coral banks 

 obferved at the diftance of fome leagues to the north of 

 Mokha. (< GhaleCka, a town formerly celebrated," fays he, 

 " is at prefent a wretched village, the inhabitants of whieh, 

 few in number, live on their dates and by fiihing. The 

 coaft is at prefent fo filled with coral banks, that the port is 

 impracticable even to fmall veflels." 



If only a few centuries then were required to render a port 

 and the neighbouring coafts impracticable, this rigorous con- 

 fequence refill ts, that all thefe (bores mutt many ages ago 

 have been inacceuible to (hips, had the Ked Sea, and the 

 coafts by which it is bordered, exifted fifieen thoufand years 

 before the Chriftian sera, as is faid of the zodiacs of Upper 

 Egypt, which would ftill fuppofe many thoufands of years 

 anterior to that period. 



A a 3 And 



